"There are many people who could claim and learn from
their Indian
ancestry, but because of the fear their parents and grandparents
knew, because of past and present prejudice against Indian people,
that part of their heritage is clouded or denied." ~Joseph Bruchac
ABENAKI

"In our language there is no word to say inferior or superiority or
equality because we are equal; it's a known fact. But life has become
very complicated since the newcomers came here. And how does your
spirit react to it?. It's painful. You have to be strong to walk
through the storm. I know I'm a bridge between two worlds. All I ask
is for people to wash their feet before they try to walk on me."
~Alanis Obomsawin ABENAKI

"It is a native tradition to sit in a circle and talk-to share what
is in your heart." ~John Peters WAMPANOAG

"We have to educate ourselves to know who we are. That's what I mean
when I say, 'Teach the children.' ~Eddie Benton-Banai OJIBWAY

"Our people don't come in parts. Either you are Indian, or you are
not." ~Nippawanock ARAPAHOE

"To me, if you're Indian, you're Indian. You don't have to put on
your buckskin, beads, and feathers, and stuff like that." ~Cecilia
Mitchell MOHAWK

And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my
tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will
swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children's
children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon
the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be
alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At
night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you
think them deserted, they will throng with the returning ghosts that once
filled them and still love this beautiful land. The White Man will never
be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead
are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of
worlds....Chief Seattle - Suguamish

Brothers, I have listened to a great many talks from your great
father. But they always began and ended in this - "Get a little further;
you are too near me."...Speckled Snake - Cree

Each person's journey on Earth will be different, for
each person has a different realization of happiness.

Be true unto yourself but share that truth with
others.

Who is a wise person? The one who sees things to
come.

Utah Elder

"Love your life, perfect
your life,
Beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long,
and its purpose in the service of your people."~ Chief Tecumseh

"So live your life that the
fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their
religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect
yours."~ Tecumseh

"Peace comes within the souls of men,
when they realize their oneness with the Universe,
when they realize it is really everywhere...
it is within each one of us."

~ Black
Elk, Lakota Medicine Man

Our Sacred Ground

"The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the
blood of our ancestors."

~Chief Plenty Coups, Crow~

May nature help.....

May the
stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong.

~ Chief Dan George

The Earth - The People

All things are
connected
We did not weave
the web of life,
we are but a strand in it.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the people of the earth.
- Chief Seattle

What are we doing ?

We must not conceal from ourselves that no improvement in the present
depressing situation is possible without a severe struggle; for the handful
of those who are really determined to do something is minute in comparison
with the mass of the lukewarm and the misguided. And those who have an
interest in keeping the machinery of war going are a very powerful body;
they will stop at nothing to make public opinion subservient to their
murderous ends

Silver haired Elder

A human being is part of the whole

A human being is part of the whole called by us
universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our
thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of
optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for
us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few
persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison
by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and
the whole of nature in its beauty. ... We shall require a substantially
new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.